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• Put your loose change in a container on a chest or dresser and deposit those funds in your savings account on a regular basis. Americans typically save more than $100 in loose change each year. Use this change to open and grow a savings account.
• If you are making payments on an automobile, complete the payments and then begin paying the same amount each month to your savings account.
• When you get a raise at your employment, save a portion of the new increase.
• Save all or part of special gifts such as birthdays or holiday cash gifts.
• Sell items that no longer have any use or value. Place the proceeds in savings.
• Save “extra” income such as overtime or work bonuses.
• Adopt a daily amount as the amount you will save each day, such as “a dollar a day.”
• Each month eliminate one non-essential item and save the money normally spent.
Building an emergency fund may be easier if you involve your whole family in meeting this challenge. After you’ve explained the importance of emergency savings to your spouse or children, they may even help build the account. And, they will be more likely to understand why it’s more important for you to increase these savings than to pay for expensive gifts at birthdays or special holidays.
Another way to accumulate the $500 to $1,000 of emergency savings is to ask your bank or credit union to automatically transfer funds from checking to savings monthly. In addition, your employer may have a plan to electronically deposit money into your savings. Automatic savings is the easiest savings. What you don’t ever see, you may never miss.
Saving for Major Purchases